Reading break

From 2017’s most anticipated novel to a bestselling memoir, ROSALYN D’MELLO bookmarks the best vacation reads to curl up to near a fireplace, or on a sunbed

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Mountain reads

THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS Arundhati Roy, Penguin IndiaBooker-winning writer Arundhati Roy’s second novel has been two decades in the making, making this undoubtedly the most anticipated book of the year. Come June, Roy’s next, which has been teased as a novel about “souls, past and present, human and animal, that have been broken by the world we live in and mended by love,” will be in bookstores near you.

ABSOLUTELY ON MUSIC Haruki Murakami, Penguin Random HouseComprising two years of sit-down conversations with the legendary virtuoso pianist and composer Seiji Ozawa, Murakami’s latest leaves no composer unturned, from Brahms to Beethoven to Glenn Gould, Bartók and Mahler. Numerous anecdotes are unearthed, including how the young Ozawa used to perch himself inside a hidden room in Carnegie Hall so he could watch and memorise Leonard Bernstein’s every move.

THE BOOK OF CHOCOLATE SAINTS Jeet Thayil, AlephSet to release in September this year, this novel locates an artist as its core protagonist, modelled loosely on the iconic late enfant terrible artist Francis Newton Souza. It is meant to be a ﬁctional account of Souza’s return to India from New York with his partner Goody as a reformed alcoholic set for his swan-song show.

AUTUMN Ali Smith, Penguin UKThe British author’s latest book is the ﬁrst of a quartet, which, like Vivaldi’s famous musical composition, is dedicated to each of the four seasons. There’s always been an element of time travel and identity shifts in Smith’s work, but with Autumn the author experiments with the existential notion of both the conceptual categories.

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Beach reads

EXIT WEST Mohsin Hamid, Hamish HamiltonThe ﬁrst “post-Brexit novel” is about the lives of two young people from an unnamed city who fall in love against the backdrop of civil war. As the violence aggravates, they hear whispers of a mysterious door that can perilously, for a price, transport its entrants into a different space far away. Left with no real choice, the protagonists decide to embrace the uncertain.

THE WINDFALL Diksha Basu, Bloomsbury What better way to celebrate a beachside retreat than to read about the presumably shallow lives of the nouveau riche from which you’re (probably) escaping. Out in June, Basu’s sophomore novel is a warm yet comical take on Delhi’s elite, told through the lives of Mr and Mrs Jha, who make their transition from a modest apartment to a swanky new house.

AN UNSUITABLE BOY Karan Johar, Penguin Random HouseGiven his measured silence around his sexual identity, this breathless memoir will continue to be the talk of Bollywood. Johar’s tell-all delves into intimate details surrounding his childhood, growing up being chastised for his queer predisposition, his adolescent battle with obesity, and his eventual initiation and acceptance into the cult of stardom and legend-hood.

DIFFICULT WOMEN Roxane Gay, Grove PressFrom a woman who pretends to overlook moments when her husband and his twin brother impersonate each other to a stripper working her way through to college fending off a touchy customer—Gay’s newest short stories are peopled by women who live lives of privilege or poverty and negotiate complex situations by being difficult.